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Katie Couric Provides Scholarships with New Book

Photo Courtesy of Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images via The New York Times.

By Kathryn Knight Randolph

February 28, 2011

If you’re looking for a scholarship, your next source may be Katie Couric. On Thursday, Random House officially announced Couric’s new book, “The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives.” The book not only provides expert advice on success but also lends itself to raising funds for scholarship opportunities, according to an article in The New York Times.

Couric said in her interview with The New York Times that the book was inspired by her commencement address at Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 2010. The book is a compilation of pieces of advice from notable musicians, television personalities, politicians and athletes like Sheryl Crow, Chelsea Handler, Madeleine Albright, and Drew Brees.

These bits of advice come in a variety of forms. Matt Lauer, Couric’s former co-host on “The Today Show”, wrote an essay; Eric Stonestreet from ABC’s “Modern Family” penned a poem; and the founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, sent a small piece of advice using only 140 characters.

In her interview with The New York Times, Couric said, “I know there are a lot of books out there with different pieces of advice, but I don’t know if there is anything quite like this out there…[it shows how] to find the passion in your work.”

All proceeds from the book will go directly to Scholarship America, the nation’s largest non-profit, private scholarship organization. The organization enables anyone to give money to help aspiring students fund their college education through its Dollars for Scholars program. Since its inception, Scholarship America has given $2.4 billion to 1.7 million students.

Couric also said in her interview, “I’m going to be out there selling; I’ll be on ‘Des Moines Tonight’; I’ll be everywhere because I want the book to do well to raise money for the scholarships.”

“The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives” will be available for purchase on April 12, 2011.